In seclusion until the 10th of next month…

Huang Sibo couldn’t help but worry.

Although on the surface it was just a month, in business warfare, time was life.

Even a single day was extremely precious, let alone a month?

Many crisis public relations required companies to provide appropriate solutions within as little as one or two hours—the faster, the better. And many companies opted for the 996 work schedule partly because business competition was so fierce that every minute counted.

Take games for example: two similar games launching a month earlier or later could have completely different fates.

Mr. Pei being in seclusion for a month likely meant that during this period, Tenda’s various departments couldn’t receive any instructions and would need to resolve the current crisis on their own.

This month-long period might allow Tenda to accumulate a huge disadvantage.

By all rights, wouldn’t Mr. Pei know what was more important?

Would an ordinary undergraduate thesis really require Mr. Pei to rack his brains for a month?

It felt like the answer to both questions should be “no.”

If that was the case…

Huang Sibo suddenly had a flash of insight and replied, “I think you’re all overthinking this. Mr. Pei’s intentions are so obvious, yet you haven’t figured it out?”

The department heads discussing in the chat group all quieted down and asked, “What do you mean by that?”

Huang Sibo explained, “Think about it carefully. Mr. Pei is well-informed and calculates everything meticulously. Would he not know about other major companies uniting to target Tenda?”

“Knowing this, would Mr. Pei completely abandon the entire Tenda for an ordinary graduation thesis?”

“Think about it—in every past crisis, hasn’t Mr. Pei already completed his arrangements in advance, luring enemies into his encirclement?”

“When has Mr. Pei ever miscalculated?”

These words left the other department heads stunned.

Indeed, when had Mr. Pei ever made such a basic mistake?

Information—Mr. Pei definitely had it. With Mr. Pei’s strategic abilities, it was impossible for him to irresponsibly walk away.

Xiao Peng: “Are you saying… Mr. Pei has actually already given instructions, but none of us noticed?”

Huang Sibo was silent for a moment, then replied, “Not necessarily.”

Everyone: “…”

Huang Sibo quickly explained, “What I mean is that there are two possibilities for Mr. Pei’s current behavior.”

“The first is that Mr. Pei has already completed his arrangements, knowing that this anti-Tenda alliance will inevitably fail, so he’s not worried at all.”

“The second is that Mr. Pei is deliberately using the excuse of writing his thesis to disappear, wanting to see if everyone can maintain rationality and clarity in this ‘leaderless’ state, analyze the situation on their own, come up with countermeasures, and resolve this crisis.”

“It could also be… a combination of both.”

The chat group fell into a brief silence.

Clearly, these department heads had all begun to seriously analyze the possibility of this explanation.

The conclusion after analysis was naturally: the possibility was very high, close to 100%!

Because Huang Sibo’s reasoning was so solid—with Mr. Pei’s talent and strategic abilities, he shouldn’t make such an abnormal move.

Therefore, leaving this difficult problem for all department heads to solve together, continuing to train their abilities—this was the most powerful and reasonable explanation.

It was also possible that Mr. Pei would appear to save the situation if everyone failed, but they couldn’t count on this.

Because if they always thought about Mr. Pei coming to the rescue, then everyone would never achieve true growth.

No matter how large the scale of development of each department or how robustly they grew, if they always existed under Mr. Pei’s protection, unable to withstand the winds and waves, unable to cope with the truly cruel rules of the business world, then they would always remain weak and lifeless.

After a while, Rui Yuchen replied, “But… what we need now is coordination.”

Huang Sibo: “Mr. Pei is precisely trying to train everyone’s coordination skills.”

Rui Yuchen: “…That’s true.”

Soon, the department head group regained its vitality.

Previously, many department heads were a bit panicked. After all, the external pressure was great, and they couldn’t find Mr. Pei when they looked for him, so they naturally felt anxious.

This was only human nature. Apart from naturally gifted individuals like Mr. Pei, who could always maintain absolute rationality and calmness? When interests were involved, concern led to confusion.

But now, after Huang Sibo’s analysis, everyone quickly came to an understanding.

It seemed this was likely a form of training and testing from Mr. Pei!

Perhaps Mr. Pei was saying he was writing his thesis, but had actually already completed it and was patiently waiting to see the counterattack actions of each department!

If that was the case, they could no longer argue back and forth like headless flies; they needed to quickly come up with a solution that would satisfy Mr. Pei!

Xiao Peng said, “We were indeed a bit confused earlier. Let’s reorganize our thoughts.”

“Actually, the current offensive of this ‘anti-Tenda alliance’ is mainly concentrated in several fixed directions, such as housing rentals, delivery, takeout, and other physical industries. In games, movies, and other industries, this alliance is still trying to recruit other companies, and their offensive isn’t very strong.”

“We need to start analyzing their main attack directions and specifically target their alliance with divided strikes, defeating them one by one.”

“It’s better to break one finger than to hurt all ten. Even if we exchange injuries, as long as we can hurt and frighten this loose alliance, they will naturally collapse without a fight.”

“In a situation where both sides suffer heavy losses, Tenda’s recovery speed will definitely far exceed theirs!”

Rui Yuchen expressed agreement: “That’s right, I also agree with this view. We should quickly distinguish between the main contradictions and secondary contradictions now, and learn to analyze the entire situation using Mr. Pei’s thinking method. Once the plan is formed, each department can’t have complaints, and shouldn’t consider the costs and losses to their own department, but should make the utmost effort to achieve their respective goals and tasks!”

“Even if some departments suffer too much damage in this process, it doesn’t matter. After this battle ends, other departments can still provide support together and save them in a short time!”

The department heads began to speak one after another, re-analyzing the current situation.

Previously, they had been somewhat like headless flies, each talking about their own concerns. That was because their thinking hadn’t changed, and their starting point for considering problems was still the interests of their own departments, making it difficult to reach a unified conclusion.

But now, the department heads all stood from Mr. Pei’s perspective, considering problems from an overall angle, and then thinking about how each department should cooperate and execute this plan. The discussion progress immediately took a big step forward.

They had all been long-time employees following Mr. Pei; surely they must have absorbed some of Mr. Pei’s thinking patterns?

It didn’t matter if Mr. Pei didn’t take action. As long as the department heads worked together, they could still come up with a plan no less effective than Mr. Pei’s!

Seeing this, Huang Sibo nodded with satisfaction.

Even watching these department heads’ discussions, he felt his blood boiling, very much wanting to join in and contribute ideas.

But Huang Sibo still restrained this impulse and closed the department head group, after all, he was still responsible for the film “The Future You Chose.”

“I’ll call Lu Zhiyao to see if he’s interested in playing the protagonist in this film.”

…

“Achoo!”

Pei Qian was in seclusion writing his thesis at his residence when he suddenly sneezed without warning.

“Who’s talking about me behind my back!”

“Where’s my phone…”

“Damn, no way, I absolutely can’t touch my phone during seclusion. Resist! Resist!”

Pei Qian’s current state could be described as “fully armed” without exaggeration.

He had a red “Victory” headband tied around his head, medical wrist braces on both hands that he had bought recently, a safety belt wrapped around his waist securing him firmly to his ergonomic chair, a 2000ml large water bottle filled with tea on the table, plus two cups of iced coffee.

His phone was in airplane mode, tossed into the farthest bedroom.

The keyboard had been replaced with a new electrostatic capacitive one costing 2000 yuan.

All software unrelated to writing his thesis, such as games and chat applications, had been completely uninstalled from his computer.

The power for the TV and game console had been unplugged, and they were even specially sealed—he absolutely couldn’t touch them until the thesis was finished!

Then he had told the manager at Sloth Apartments that if someone really came looking for him, unless it was an absolute emergency, they should not disturb him.

In short, Pei Qian had employed every method he could think of.

The reason for wearing medical wrist braces wasn’t because he was worried about tendonitis or hand problems from typing too much—the few characters wouldn’t cause that—but mainly because these medical wrist braces contained a thin steel reinforcement that restricted thumb movement and made it difficult to grip properly with the palm.

This didn’t affect thesis writing or typing but made playing with a phone or moving a mouse extremely difficult.

He had already gathered all the research materials for his thesis, so he temporarily didn’t need to frequently move the mouse to look up information.

The coffee was for alertness, and the water bottle was for hydration, preventing him from constantly walking around on the pretext of getting water, which would seriously affect his concentration. He might even be attracted by something else along the way, causing his writing mission to fail.

The ergonomic chair and electrostatic capacitive keyboard were to ensure comfort and typing efficiency. Combined with the safety belt and other auxiliary restraint measures on the chair, Pei Qian had only one feeling: he was now a merciless thesis-writing machine!

As for the disturbances in the outside world…

Sorry, he didn’t care at all.

Pei Qian thought that if this set of equipment proved effective, he could consider providing one set for each author in Endpoint Chinese Website’s writing class.

Of course, he knew about other companies uniting to deal with Tenda, but he didn’t care at all. Come on! The more ferocious, the better!

These department heads still wanted Mr. Pei to help make decisions—this was simply wishful thinking.

Although there was only a month left to submit the first draft, Pei Qian wasn’t panicked at all. Instead, he had a mysterious confidence, feeling that the progress of his thesis was quite smooth!

At least, Pei Qian had made considerable achievements in studying others’ research about himself!